


One Strange Night

by usopping



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, M/M, Nakamaship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 20:01:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4276110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usopping/pseuds/usopping
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Separated from the rest of the crew on a winter island in the middle of its winter, Zoro and Sanji are forced to spend the night together in a small cabin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Strange Night

It had been dark for a long while by the time they found the cabin, though on this winter island in the middle of its winter, that didn’t mean much. The citizens of the town where they had docked had warned them, but Luffy was dead-set on adventure, and Nami had caught the scent of treasure and couldn’t let go. Then those damn Lapahns had attacked and they’d all gotten separated. And of all people, the only one Sanji had been able to locate was the damn mosshead.

For the first stretch of their wandering journey they’d bickered and cursed each other, but the insults dried up quickly, or more likely froze. The wind was relentless and had a way of finding its way through the many layers of clothing they had on, chilling Sanji to the bone. Then the snow had started to fall, clouding their vision, biting at any exposed skin, and making the journey even more treacherous.

Zoro was the one who had spotted the cabin. By then, Sanji was having a time simply putting one foot in front of the other, though he’d never admit it. He couldn’t even feel his toes. The cabin was small, and it wasn’t much warmer inside than outside, but its walls were sturdy and kept out the wind. It was dry, as well, and there was a pile of wood and a small fireplace, some cooking utensils, and a box full of furs and blankets. In silence, the two pirates set down their packs. Sanji started a fire, and then took a pot from the cabin wall and started a simple stew using ingredients he’d prepared back on the Going Merry. Meanwhile, Zoro spread out the blankets and furs before taking a seat out of Sanji’s line of sight.

As the cook worked, his thoughts wandered to the rest of the crew. He hoped the five of them were together. He didn’t want to imagine what could happen if any one of them, save perhaps Luffy, had to wander this cold place alone. He and Zoro had nearly walked over the edge of a cliff, not seeing the edge until they were right on it. Every tree in the forest looked alike, so you didn’t need the swordsman’s legendary sense of direction to get lost. Whatever trails might exist were buried under several feet of snow, the darkness and snowfall played tricks on the eyes, and the wind carried and contorted sounds. Nothing was reliable, and every step was a gamble.

_We shouldn’t have come._

Sanji tried to shake the thought away. As a man, as a  _pirate,_ he shouldn’t be regretting his decision. He should trust his captain and the crew … but there were those damn Lapahn. Only three had attacked them ( _Three against seven, but we still lost!_ ), but Sanji remembered the size of the herd he and Luffy had faced on Drum Island. If a horde like that came down on the others, what chance did they have?

_And meanwhile I’m sitting here with a fire to warm me, cooking for that idiot swordsman who’s probably already asleep!_ Some wild part of him wanted to head back out into the bitter cold in search of the others, but the fact that the feeling hadn’t quite returned to his toes, if nothing else, kept him from doing so.

“That ranger in town said these cabins are all over the place.”

Sanji bristled at the sound of Zoro’s voice. “Yeah. I heard him. So what?”

“So stop worrying,” Zoro said bluntly.

“Who’s worrying?” Sanji snapped, but the other man only snorted and said, “You’re so transparent.”

“If we’d beaten those shitty rabbits, I wouldn’t  _need_ to worry,” Sanji half-muttered. “There were three of them and seven of us and we still fucking lost. How the hell did we lose?”

“Unstable footing. Low visibility. They had the element of -”

“Don’t fucking patronize me, mosshead!”

There was a beat of silence. Then Zoro said, “Sorry.”

It was then that Sanji realized that he was probably worried, too. It wasn’t like the swordsman to apologize, not under normal circumstances, and least of all to  _him_. Sanji supposed he should have revelled in having gotten the apology, but he felt no sense of victory. All he had was a tightening ball of anxiety in his gut and the chill that the heat of the fire couldn’t chase away.

When the stew was ready, Sanji divided it into two portions and handed one to Zoro. Unlike Sanji, the  _marimo_ had shed his coat, though he still wore several layers more. Sanji didn’t know how the guy could stand it. He himself snatched a blanket off the floor and wrapped it around himself before he sat down to eat.

The meal passed in silence, and before Sanji was halfway through his bowl, Zoro had emptied his and was lying down to sleep. Though he lay close to the fire, he left a gap there, as if to give Sanji space to lie down. Well, if the moss-brain wanted to give him the better spot, Sanji wasn’t going to complain. The stew warmed his belly, but it couldn’t chase the cold from the rest of his body.

When he finished eating, Sanji took all the blankets and furs Zoro hadn’t claimed, save for the ones spread on the floor, and cocooned himself in them, laying down as close to the fire as he could. Shutting his tired eyes and once again fighting to keep his thoughts off the others, it took him a moment to notice that Zoro was shuffling closer.

“What are you doing?” he grumbled, turning around. The movement made his cocoon loosen.

“Getting closer to the fire,” the swordsman replied. “We should share body heat.”

“ _Excuse me?”_ Sanji’s eyes snapped open, but all he could see of the other was his ridiculous green hair poking out from among the blankets.

“That fire won’t burn all night. And you’re already freezing, aren’t you?”

“I’m  _fine._ If the fire goes out I’ll just wake up and relight it!”

Suddenly Zoro’s hand found his under the blankets. His fingers were unfairly warm wrapped around Sanji’s icicle-like ones.

“What if you don’t wake up? You might not even notice. In a place this cold you could fall asleep and freeze to death.”

“And you think sharing body heat’s gonna prevent that?”

“It can’t hurt.”

“We should just … take the night in shifts!”

“Fine. First watch is yours.”

Sanji stifled a groan. Trekking through all that goddamn snow had taken more out of him than he wanted to admit, and it felt like he’d used the last of his energy when he’d turned. His eyelids were drooping.  _And the shitty_ marimo’s _hand was so warm._ At last, Sanji sighed and muttered, “Come here, then. But I swear to god, if this is some shitty ploy to cop a feel I’ll kick you out of the cabin completely.”

Zoro snorted. “The only one perverted enough to even be thinking of something like that in this situation is  _you.”_

“Shut up,” Sanji tried to growl, but it turned into a yawn halfway through.

The swordsman laughed softly, and Sanji actually knew a moment of disappointment when he pulled his hand away to manoeuvre his way closer, rearranging the blankets so they overlapped. To his credit, he didn’t latch himself onto Sanji or anything. He simply moved close enough that Sanji could feel the warmth of his body. He kept his hands to himself, too, curling his right arm under his head and resting the left along his side. In classic  _marimo_ style, he fell asleep seemingly instantaneously, and for a moment Sanji wondered how the other man could be so casual about this, but soon sleep had taken him, as well.

He awoke to a cold, dark room, to the howling wind, and to Zoro’s quiet snoring. His internal clock told him it wasn’t yet morning, and he was about to close his eyes and go back to sleep when it clicked that the fire had gone out. Reluctantly, he edged towards the fireplace, not coming out from under the blankets until he absolutely had to - and when he did, he immediately wished he’d taken his chances with surviving the night in the cold. He shook fiercely as he relit the fire, and even as he fed it more and more wood, the trembling didn’t stop completely. When at last he had a good, hot blaze going, Sanji crawled back under the blankets and found himself curling up closer to Zoro than before. He was contemplating whether the swordsman would notice if he moved his (once again frozen) hands closer when Zoro shifted slightly and brought his arm over Sanji. A moment later, the arm curled around him, and the next thing Sanji knew, he was being crushed into the other man’s chest in a steel trap bear hug.

And it was so damn warm.

 “What are you  _doing_?” the cook grumbled, trying to wiggle out of the hug. He only got a snore in response. The idiot was asleep. And Sanji was stuck. Heaving an exasperated sigh, he shifted, trying to get comfortable. He figured if he really wanted to, he could kick the  _marimo_ awake, but it wasn’t worth the fuss. He’d kick Zoro’s ass in the morning. For now he simply closed his eyes and let the human furnace chase away that bone-deep chill he’d been fighting all day.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate title: Sanji is Straight™ but it's Cold and Zoro is a Human Furnace.


End file.
